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central Oregon birds

Doug Herr

Member
I visited a watering hole in interior Oregon where desert scrub meets forest and found a few birds


recros02.jpg


cafinc05.jpg


pijay01.jpg


gttowh02.jpg

 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I visited a watering hole in interior Oregon where desert scrub meets forest and found a few birds


recros02.jpg




All your pictures are very unique and special. This one is my favorite. If it was just one bird, I wish it was this one. Very elegant coloring. I am totally flabbergasted at why only birds, replies and the bottoms of apes in estrous have such wonderful colors!

Mammals have colors, but they seem to be just for camouflage!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I visited a watering hole in interior Oregon where desert scrub meets forest and found a few birds




cafinc05.jpg


pijay01.jpg




I wonder if the finch and jay would pair with their U.S. relatives? ....if they were imported here by some chance.

I discovered http://allaboutbirds.com as a very easy to follow and rich source of information about these birds.

"House Finches, particularly males, can look very different from one to another. This is largely due to differences in their diet rather than regional differences. Even though all of eastern North America’s House Finches are descended from the same few birds released on Long Island (meaning they’re much more closely related to each other than they are to birds across the West), there aren’t any strong differences in size, shape, or color between the two regions."

The local variations on plumage and color of birds is fascinating to me. But do they still mate if given the chance or are they "racist", so to speak?

Asher

Has speciation occurred?
 

Doug Herr

Member
Cassin's Fish and Pinyon Jay are both native the western mountains. Are you thinking of the House Sparrow?

hospar00.jpg



The male House Finch's color is influenced by diet


hofinc21.jpg


hofinc22.jpg


Their color may include yellows instead of red. The wing linings of Northern Flickers

noflic04.jpg

are typically yellow in the east and far north, and red in the west. Where the eastern and western birds meet intermediate colors are found and until recently it was assumed the color blending is the result of genetics, but more recently diet has been found to influence the color as well.


There are some birds that are closely related, such as Myrtle Warbler

yrwarb10.jpg

and Audubon's Warbler

yrwarb14.jpg

(note throat color). These birds have range preferences (Audubon's in the west, Myrtle in the east & far north) but will breed where the ranges overlap. There's some debate whether these two are distinct species or variations of the same species; at the moment the 'same species' camp is in power while the 'separate species' forces are growing in power. The birds don't care how we describe them.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Doug,

Thanks for the lessons. Interesting that diet can influence feather coloring so much. I guess it tells the flock who has been around the longest!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Doug,

Thanks again for the information of food influencing color.I hadn't realized that previously!

Interestingly, some birds that we think are drab or are similar in color, can readily be differentiated under UV light and a looking through a camera with appropriate filters.

Also there are colors in the visible spectrum that birds can discriminate far more easily than we are able to do. There's a great Scientific American article here that is worth reading.

"They even have colors in their plumage that are invisible to the human eye. Birds have four color cones in their eyes (compared to three in humans), which allow them to see the ultraviolet part of the color spectrum. Scientists using spectroradiometers to measure the extent of ultraviolet coloration have found that males in many apparently monochromatic species (those with similarly colored sexes, such as European starlings) in fact sport bright ultraviolet colors that females use extensively in their choice of mate."

Yellows and greens seem too be more related to the birds genetics but reds are more related to diet. In general, it appears that while the colors of the bird that does the food gathering of the pair, (most often the male), is the most brightly colored. Nevertheless, the main driver of bright colors and chromatic dimorphism is not sexual selection but evolutionary pressures of surviving predators and signally to other males that this territory is occupied by a healthy pair that will oppose you settling here!

Asher
 

Peter Dexter

Well-known member
I understand flamingos' color depends on the consumption of shrimp. In the wild they are brilliantly colored but in zoos their color is often washed out.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I understand flamingos' color depends on the consumption of shrimp. In the wild they are brilliantly colored but in zoos their color is often washed out.

Same with salmon! In the Norwegian Sea-farm pens from their own ruined fiords to Scotland and now to the West Coast of the USA, the farm grown salmon have no shrimp for colorcand so a bathed in red dye.......and scabicides for the stick on parasites....and antibiotics as they swim in poop!

Best to get “white” farm raised-salmon, at least it lacks the red dye.

The birds in the zoo should be fed the wild diet as there could be micronutrients that are protective!

Stupid humans, LOL!

Asher
 
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